The disappointing Rangers got rolled by No. 46.
After avoiding the sweep in Anaheim in the final game of their three-game set, the 2000 Yankees headed on down to Arlington for three games against the Texas Rangers. Despite coming into the season as the two-time defending champs in the American League West, the Rangers were in the midst of a Murphy’s Law season: everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Hall of Fame catcher and 1999 AL MVP Iván Rodríguez, having one of the best offensive seasons of all time for a catcher, required season-ending surgery after fracturing his thumb on July 24th; he finished the season with 27 home runs in just 91 games. The pitching staff, meanwhile, struggled mightily, with only Kenny Rogers and Rick Helling putting together sustained success in the rotation, and former Yankees World Series champion John Wetteland limping to the finish in the final season of his career.
August 14: Yankees 7, Rangers 3 (box score)
Record: 64-50 (1st in AL East, 4.0 games ahead)
With Chuck Knoblauch still on the shelf, the Yankees continued their experiment with Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada as the top two hitters in the order. That pairing paid immediate dividends against Texas. Rangers starter Matt Perisho plunked Jeter with two strikes to lead off the game; Posada then deposited a 3-1 pitch more than 400 feet into the seats in left field. Before recording an out, the Bombers had themselves a 2-0 lead.
From the onset, meanwhile, Yankees lefty Andy Pettitte was on the top of his game. Thanks in part to some slick defense — Bernie Williams making a sliding catch to rob former teammate Ricky Ledée of extra bases in the second, a 3-6-3 double play off the bat of Rafael Palmeiro in the fourth, and, of course, Pettitte himself picking Gabe Kapler off first to end the fourth — No. 46 shut down the Rangers lineup for seven innings. No batter reached second base until Luis Alicea reached on an E4 to lead off the sixth; he would eventually reach third, but go no further. In truth, the only real highlight for the Rangers in this stretch was Kapler extending his hitting streak to 27 games, a Rangers franchise record.
Starting in the fifth, the Yankees began to tack on some extra runs to take the pressure off Pettitte — extra runs that would eventually prove important. Jeter led off the inning with a double, and Posada followed that up with a walk. A Bernie Williams groundball advanced Jeter to third and replaced Posada at first with Williams. A José Canseco single then scored Jeter and sent Bernie to third, but David Justice would strike out swinging for the third out of the inning.
Tino Martinez began the sixth with a double, advancing to third on an E8. That put him in position to score two batters later on a Scott Brosius single, and that single put him in position to score two batters after that when Jeter launched a home run into the seats in left-center.
By the time the bottom of the eighth rolled around, the Yankees had themselves a 7-0 lead, with the seventh run courtesy of a Brosius RBI double in the top of the eighth. It was at this point, though, that the Rangers finally got to Pettitte. Three straight singles to lead off the inning scored one run, and a hit batter loaded the bases with nobody out. Randy Choate then came on to get Rafael Palmiero, and walked him on four pitches to bring in a second run. Manager Joe Torre then summoned Jeff Nelson from the bullpen, retired the only batter he faced. Mike Stanton then came in and got two quick groundouts on the two batters he faced, albeit allowing one run to score in the process.
With his closer only making one appearance in the previous week, Torre opted to ensure that nothing funny happened in the bottom of the ninth, summoning Mariano Rivera from the bullpen although it was not a save situation. He retired the side in order, securing the victory for the Yankees.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
Category: General Sports
